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They had fried plantains with vegetable and meat for dinner. The girls said they enjoyed it very much, although it was clear from the running of their eyes and noses that there was too much pepper in it.
They resumed their dancing soon afterwards, in semi-darkness and in silence except when they occasionally teased one another. “Why are you so silent, you two?” or: “Keep moving; don’t stand on one spot.”
After a few opening skirmishes Obi won a couple of tentative kisses. But when he tried something more ambitious, Nora whispered sharply: “No! Catholics are not allowed to kiss like that.”
“Why not?”
It’s a sin.
“How odd.”
They continued dancing and occasionally kissing with their lips alone.
Before they finally took them home at eleven Obi and Christopher had promised to go and play tennis with them on some evenings. They had gone twice in quick succession; then other things had claimed their interest. Obi had thought of them again because he wanted something, like a game of tennis, to occupy his mind in the afternoon and perhaps tire him out so that he could sleep at night.
As soon as Christopher’s car drew up, a white-clad Mother appeared suddenly at the door of the convent chapel. Obi drew his attention to the fact. She was too far away for them to see the expression on her face, but he felt it was hostile. The girls were having their afternoon prep, and so the convent was very quiet. They went up the stairs that led to Nora and Pat’s flat above the classroom, the Mother following them with her eyes until they disappeared into the sitting room.
The girls were having tea and buns. They looked pleased to see their visitors, but somehow not quite as pleased as usual. They seemed a little embarrassed.
“Have some tea,” they said together, as if they had been rehearsing the phrase, and before their guests had settled down properly in their chairs. They drank their tea almost in silence. Although Obi and Christopher were dressed for tennis and carried rackets, the girls did not say anything about playing. After tea they sat where they were, attempting valiantly to keep what conversation there was going.
“What about a game?” Christopher asked when the conversation finally expired. There was a pause. Then Nora explained quite simply without any false apologies that the Mother had spoken to them seriously about going around with African men. She had warned them that if the Bishop knew of it they might find themselves sent back to Ireland.
Pat said it was all silly and ridiculous. She actually used the word ridiculosity, which made Obi smile internally. “But we don’t want to be sent back to Ireland.”
Nora promised that they would occasionally go to visit the boys at Ikoyi. But it would be best if they did not come to the convent because the Mother and the Sisters were watching.
“What are you two, anyway? Daughters?” asked Christopher. But this was not very well received and the visit was soon afterwards brought to a close.
“You see,” said Christopher as soon as they got back into the car. “And they call themselves missionaries!”
“What do you expect the poor girls to do?”
“I wasn’t thinking of them. I mean the Mothers and Sisters and fathers and children.”
Obi found himself in the unusual role of defending Roman Catholics.
On their way home they stopped to say hello to Christopher’s newest girl friend Florence. He was so taken with her that he even mentioned marriage. But that was impossible because the girl was going to England next September to study nursing. She was out when they got to her place, and Christopher left a note for her.
“I have not seen Bisi for a long time,” he said. And they went to see her. But she, too, was out.
“What a day for visits!” said Obi. “We had better go home.”
Christopher talked about Florence all the way. Should he try and persuade her not to go to England?
“I shouldn’t if I were you,” Obi said. He told him of one old catechist in Umuofia many, many years ago when Obi was a little boy. This man’s wife was a very good friend of Obi’s mother and often visited them. One day he overheard her telling his mother how her education had been cut short at Standard One because the man was impatient to get married. She sounded very bitter about it, although it must have happened at least twenty years before. Obi remembered this particular visit very well because it took place on a Saturday. On the following morning the catechist had been unable to take the service because his wife had broken his head with the wooden pestle used for pounding yams. Obi’s father, as a retired catechist, had been asked to conduct the service at very short notice.
“Talking about going to England reminds me of a girl who practically offered herself to me. Have I told you the story?”
“No.”
Obi told him the story of Miss Mark, starting with her brother’s visit to his office.
“What happened to her in the end?”
“Oh, she is in England. She got the scholarship all right.”
“You are the biggest ass in Nigeria,” said Christopher, and they began a long argument on the nature of bribery.
